Role of PTK-7 in Acute Myeloid Leukemias

The pseudo tyrosine kinase receptor 7 (PTK7) is an orphan tyrosine kinase receptor assigned to the planar cell polarity pathway. PTK7 is expressed in normal myeloid progenitors and CD34(+) CD38(-) bone marrow cells in humans. It is also expressed in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and is mostly assigned to granulocytic lineage differentiation. In AML, PTK7 seems to convey promigratory and antiapoptotic signals into the cell and represents an independent prognosis factor of survival in patients treated with induction chemotherapy. This study aims at: * evaluating the impact of PTK7 expression on primary AML cells ex vivo * evaluating the diagnostic and prognostic value of a soluble form of PTK7